Dorsey prevails before FERC in revocation of pipeline rate authority

This is believed to be the first successful challenge by a shipper against existing market-based rate authority granted by FERC to an oil pipeline.

In 1990, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) determined that a major interstate oil pipeline company lacked market power in transportation of refined products in certain U.S. markets and could charge market-based, instead of cost-based, rates in those markets. In a proceeding before the FERC, we helped a major oil refining company challenge the pipeline’s market-based rate authority in the Harrisburg and Pittsburgh markets before the FERC. Using company witnesses, expert testimony and effective discovery assisted by LegalMine, we were able to prove that conditions in those markets had changed, that the pipeline company no longer lacked market power and that its authority to charge market-based rates for transportation to those markets should be revoked. This decision creates a roadmap for future challenges to existing market-based rates of other oil pipelines.

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